Q is for Quarrelsome Duo
by simanis
Summary: A Summer 2007 Fic Challenge Letter Q.The Brothers Eppes have a quarrelsome day.


Q is for Quarrelsome Duo 

A Summer 2007 Fic Challenge Letter Q 

The Brothers Eppes have a quarrelsome day.

_(Thanks Jels for word-Quarrelsome)_

"What do you mean you can't go?" Charlie was annoyed with Don for the last minute cancellation.  
The weekend trip was planned a few days ago when Don said he could get off early on Friday, then the call came on Friday morning, after Charlie had completed packing up their gear.

"Um..Sorry Charlie, last minute hitch to the current case." Don said hesitantly.

"O…kay then. I'll see you tonight for dinner?" Charlie asked Don.

"Not too sure, maybe see you on Sunday."

"What! You can't even make time for dinner tonight. Why's that?"

"Gotta go, Charlie, see you Sunday."

"Don? Don?" Charlie got surprised for Don had hung up on him. He was suspicious and he punched some numbers on his phone, waited for the other party to pick up.

"Charlie? what's up?"

"Megan, is there something wrong with your latest case?

" No, we closed it yesterday."

"Then why did Don say that there was a hitch and he can't get off for the weekend hiking trip with me? We had it all planned a few days ago." Charlie complained.

"Eh.. Charlie go and see your brother." Megan said.

"What? He's not even in the office? Where's he? What happened?" Charlie got scared.

"He's in his apartment go and see him Charlie."

As he drove nearer to Don's place, his foul mood got a bit better and he told himself that he will not get angry with Don. Don must have a reason for canceling the trip. His anger was gone by the time he arrived.

He went up and rang the bell to Don's apartment, he had to wait for a while before he heard some shuffling and the door opened.

Don was standing there, Charlie saw him and he got annoyed, pushed pass him to get inside.

"Argh!" Don involuntary yelped and Charlie startled by the sound quickly turned around.

"Whatsa matter? Don? You OK? Oh Gosh, what happened?" Charlie was breathless after all the questions.

Don had to smile despite the pain; he was holding his middle with both hands.

"Buddy, slow down, one question at a time."

Charlie came up and put his hand on Don's shoulder, "you've hurt yourself, didn't you? That's why you can't come hiking with me "he said accusingly.

"Let me sit down first." Don said and with the help of Charlie, he sat down gingerly on the sofa.

"For your information, I did not hurt myself, somebody hurt me." Don said looking at Charlie.

"What happened?"

"Well, I had a misunderstanding with the wall and the wall didn't like it?

"Don! very funny, do I need to call one of your team members ? Can you please not joke about this." Charlie looked at Don.

"OK, OK buddy take it easy. Just didn't want to alarm you. You take everything so seriously, remember? I do not want you to make a mountain out of a molehill."

Charlie narrowed his eyes at Don and looked at him up and down and saw that Don still had his hands over his stomach.  
He tried to pull at his hands but Don slapped them away.

'Stop it Charlie, I'll tell you. OK it was partly my fault nobody to blame. Not that I want to do any bodily harm to myself.

We had cornered the suspects but we didn't know that they had a secret door and hell broke loose and we were like foxes chasing chickens, which should be easy but these chickens seemed to have high speed sneakers."

Charlie was looking at Don in a funny way and Don asked,.

"You OK buddy?" Don asked.

"Don, no more jokes please tell me what happened."

"I am telling you the truth, it just happened that way, OK, OK, not foxes and chickens but FBI chasing their suspects.  
Well, they were suspects no more, they are now in jail for crimes committed including doing bodily harm to one FBI agent."

"How?"

"How?"  
"Yes, how, Don , how did the suspect hurt you? You won't let me see your injuries."

Don rubbed his face with face with his hand and looked at Charlie,  
"Must you ask, can you not just let it go? I'm here."

"Don…"

"OK, OK, the three suspects separated and we got two, one of the suspects ran to another direction and I gave chase instead of standing around waiting for backup. I had him cornered but he got a drop on me. He hit me with an iron bar and cracked 3 ribs." Don stopped and looked at Charlie.

"OK, that's better."

"Whadaya mean that's better, it's not better, it bloody painful."

They looked at each other, tension melted away when both of them started laughing.

"Oh (gasp) Oh.. Please stop. It's cracking me up." Don gasped and Charlie laughed harder and gave Don a pillow to hold on to his stomach.

After a while, Charlie got up and went to Don's bedroom and sounds of drawers opening and closing were heard and later he came out carrying Don's sports bag.

"Come on, let's go."

"No, Charlie I will stay in my apartment." Don didn't move.

"OK, then." Charlie turned and pulled out his cell.

"OK, OK, wait, don't call, I'll go, cheesh… blackmail."

"Blackmail of not, I feel better that you come home with me., come on, I don't have all day, where's your keys and meds."

"There." Don pointed to a table near the kitchen,  
"While you're at it, go to my bedroom locker and get my badge and gun."

"What? I'm not your ….."

"Yeah, I know but I can hardly move and you want me to go to your house."

"You cannot stay here; you need someone like the big strong Papa Bear to look after you." Charlie said as he went into Don's bedroom again.

"So say you, I can jolly well look after myself, and I did it before." 'oops!' Don thought to himself, 'nearly let the cat out of the bag.'

The cat was already out; Charlie stopped in his tracks, but said nothing and took out Don's badge and gun from the locker and put it inside his sports bag and said , "Let's go."

The drive back to the house was in silence; Don sneaked a peek at Charlie who was on full concentration on his driving.

"Okay be mad..." Don muttered.

"I am not mad just disappointed."

"Why?"

"You don't trust me or dad."

"What the… what are you saying, Charlie?"

"Never mind, we're here." Charlie parked the car near the porch, got out and opened the door for Don.

He stood still, not wanting to help his brother out.

Don looked at him and said, "You're not going to help me out?"

"Nup, You did it before, so you know how to look after yourself including getting out of the car."

'Oh, so Curlybunchofhair, you've heard. Well, I can also play the game.' Don thought to himself.

"DAD!" Don yelled.

Charlie got a shock and jumped up, he stared at Don and whispered fiercely at Don, 'what are you doing?"

"Calling for dad, since you don't want to help me, DAD!"

"Will you stop it! Here, hold on to my hand."

Don smiled a wicked smile and said, "Thank you Charlie. You're most helpful."

"You'll better watch out, Special Agent. Donald Duck Smarty Pants Eppes! I'll get you one of these days." Charlie said glaring at his brother.

Alan was in the kitchen and he got as shock of his life and nearly dropped the knife he was wiping when he heard his eldest yelling for him.

He quickly went to the sitting room and looked out, what he saw was a comic situation, Don was still sitting in the passenger seat and he yelled again.

Alan didn't move and he saw Charlie glaring at his brother and held out his hand to him.

'Oh no, Donnie's hurt himself and what's this Charlie doing.' Alan thought and of course he got the whole scene wrong. He quickly went out.

"Well, serves you right, I wanted to stay in my apartment, but no  
Professor Curlybunchof Hair Righteous Charlie Chuckie Alan Eppes  
had to drag me out of my comfortable zone and dragged me here." Don was nearly snarling at Charlie.

"What's this? Charlie?Don?"

"Nothing dad." Both of them turned and answered Alan.

"Donnie? What happened?"  
"Small accident, Dad, cracked ribs, not to worry."

"What!" both Charlie and Alan shouted.

"You, PCBOHRCCAE keep quiet, one word and you're dead duck."

"Huh! I'm not the duck, you're the duck and anyone dying it would be you."

"CHARLIE!" Alan roared at him.

Both Charlie and Don cringed at their dad's voice.

"Ha,ha , PCBOHRCCAE , you're in trouble……" Don said in a soft sing song tone.

"Careful, SADDSPE careful ducky…," Charlie said softly for Don's ears , then on a louder note he said, " Dad, he started it, he threatened me."

"Charlie… mind your steps and how can Don threatened you, he can't even walk properly." and before Alan could say more, Don stepped on some uneven gravel and twisted his leg and he clung on to Charlie.  
Charlie who was minding his steps, felt Don faltered, he quickly grabbed hold of his brother and hugged him . Don gave a hiss of pain. Alan came up quickly and grabbed both his sons.

To the outsider, it resembled a group hug.

After a while both Charlie and Don slightly embarrassed, disentangled themselves from their father but somehow Don got the two pillars, one on his right and the shorter one on his left.  
He didn't know whether to laugh or cry, he just wanted Charlie to help him out of the car and now it looked like he'll be the invalid whether he liked it or not.

Don finally made it to the family's old faithful, the couch. He gave a sigh and sat down gingerly. boy that stunt hurt, his ribs got a bit squashed by his loving brother and father.

Charlie took out the packet which contained Don's medication from his pocket and gave it to his father and went to the kitchen to take a glass of water for his brother.

Don who sat with his eyes closed, opened when Charlie tapped him on the shoulder and handed the glass of water to him. Alan took out two pills and gave it to him.

He took it and muttered to thanks to his dad and his dad helped him to put up his legs so that he could sleep.  
Charlie came back with an old afghan and his father put it over Don.

Don slept till late afternoon and when he jerked awake, it took him a minute to realise where he was and he turned his head and saw Charlie staring at him.

"What? Am I drooling?"

"No, you're perfect."  
"Hey, Chuc..Charlie, ummm.sorry for being such a jerk."

"Don, it's OK, you're here so nothing else matters." Charlie said.

Don was touched at what Charlie said, he said, "Thank you Charlie."

"You're most welcome Don, anytime, anytime."

"OK."

"Hey, 2 more hours before dinner time, wanna watch a movie?"

"What do you have there? No romance flick please." Don said.

"How about Crouching Tiger? This is the American version, Amita said it was very entertaining. She passed it on to me yesterday."

"Huh? Amita watching Chinese Flicks or drooling over the actors?  
"Nah..Do you have any baseball ones?"

"Aw Don, come on, you've practically watch all baseball movies, try this Crouching Tiger?"

"Oh alright, don't blame me if I fall asleep."

Five minutes into the show,  
"Aw Charlie, look it's funny watching them speak English and in full Chinese costume."

"Nah, I found it natural, it's just a language, but you look at the sword fighting scenes, well, I think Chinese kungfu is amazing. See how they bend, don't think it's a camera trick. I once saw a group performing live on stage, it's a real treat."

"Yea, yea, you should see Megan in action; she's in some sort of marital arts thingy….Shhhh… I want to hear that what that character is saying, she seems so angry."

After sometime into the movie, Alan came into the room and saw his two sons, heads together watching. He was curious as to what had made them so engrossed on the TV.

He watched from where he was standing and after a while he too was engrossed in it.

Charlie said, "Nice to have some chips and dips."

"Yea, go on and get some here."

Charlie stared at Don and Don said, "Me" pointing to himself, "injured."

Charlie gave a snort and he stood up and turned "Arghhh!" he yelled and this time Don jumped.  
"Dad! What are you doing standing here! You gave me a fright!"

"And you gave me one too, Charlie." Don said slapping his leg.

"Err.. shhhh… Charlie, I am watching… shhhh, look at that, he's flying."

"OK, why don't you sit here, it's almost halfway, you might still enjoy it."

"OK… move aside a bit Donnie."

Chips all forgotten and Charlie sat down again.

Soon it was three Eppes' heads together watching a Chinese kung fu flick, the American version..

The end.  
June 2007


End file.
